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I agree. In a real studio environment, if they were only given three days to create a complete character, then they'd have people pulling all-nighters to get the work done. However, I guess the editors still need time to get the individual recaps of the day filmed and the artists have to refine those concept sketches.

I forgot about the interview recaps, that's a really good point. Do they have the artists refine the sketches? Some of the over-the-shoulder stuff matched the on-screen samples later, so I was thinking not.

In that photo, it looks way better than I remember it. The head design definitely feels like something straight out of a comic book, which is probably what kept her safe in that challenge.

Video cameras aren't the best sources for these things, they move around and they don't lock down the way the judges see them and they work with light differently than what you see in-studio. On that superhero she came up with, the editors chose shots that really didn't highlight what was working because the drama was what had failed so spectacularly, but I actually liked it early on. I'd love to see her get mentored into balancing her skills and keeping her concepts more grounded, then returning. That'd make a good series (I dunno about the redemption web series, I haven't been watching).

I think he got his final warning from Glenn in last night's episode, who very specifically said that he wanted to see something less cartoony and more realistic on the next challenge. If Eric F. can't make that happen, then he will probably be the one going home next.

Good point. I wonder what the judges' scorecards for these look like, the judging doesn't get enough time to explain itself fully I think, the show spends a lot of time with the judges but portrays their decisions as learned people giving gut feelings with a few pointers, like just "trust us, we know what we're saying", and I'm sure there's a lot more to it.

Usually guys who are that dedicated to weightlifting, are going to have a better understanding of the different muscle groups and how they interact with each other.

On a side note, when I watch that video, House and Eric Z. are kind of giving off the vibe of the nerds who are just totally enamored with the fact that the jock is actually paying attention to them. Maybe not so much with House, but definitely with Eric Z.

I haven't been watching the online content. Wayne's bigger than I expected when pumped, maybe you're right.

House clearly has some definition to him, he works out, but he's a cardio guy, not going for mass, so I think he's intimidated. Eric Z is definitely on track with what you're saying.

Eric F I think gets into whatever he likes in a big way, I've had friends like him before and that's kind of their thing. That "bromance" video was almost mean in how cheap the shot they took was.

He's definitely a talented guy. It's just something about his overall aesthetic that doesn't "speak to me" for whatever reason.

Sure, I get ya. One of the challenges about a competition show where the goals are subjective is in there.

I actually predicted that House would be the next to go, but I didn't submit my post in time before the show ended.

I think all the make-ups were good overall, House's just happened to be less good. With the level of talent that the final four have, it's going to be the guy who merely makes a good make-up, not a great make-up, that ends up being eliminated.

It's harder to predict who will be the next to go home; but I'm predicting Eric F. because he might have a problem breaking out of his natural style. However, if Wayne botches another paint job, then it could be him. I would be very angry if Anthony got sent home at this point.

What did you think of Wayne's gator god, not just paint but the sculpting choices?

I think the metric for who is the final person sent home before the finale will be the one who misses under pressure in the concept zone. All their executions have been strong in the clutch. I suspect Eric F is going home for the same reason, he won't be able to hit the needs of the challenge because he'll be aiming too high.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I forgot about the interview recaps, that's a really good point. Do they have the artists refine the sketches? Some of the over-the-shoulder stuff matched the on-screen samples later, so I was thinking not.

Video cameras aren't the best sources for these things, they move around and they don't lock down the way the judges see them and they work with light differently than what you see in-studio. On that superhero she came up with, the editors chose shots that really didn't highlight what was working because the drama was what had failed so spectacularly, but I actually liked it early on. I'd love to see her get mentored into balancing her skills and keeping her concepts more grounded, then returning. That'd make a good series (I dunno about the redemption web series, I haven't been watching).

Good point. I wonder what the judges' scorecards for these look like, the judging doesn't get enough time to explain itself fully I think, the show spends a lot of time with the judges but portrays their decisions as learned people giving gut feelings with a few pointers, like just "trust us, we know what we're saying", and I'm sure there's a lot more to it.

I haven't been watching the online content. Wayne's bigger than I expected when pumped, maybe you're right.

House clearly has some definition to him, he works out, but he's a cardio guy, not going for mass, so I think he's intimidated. Eric Z is definitely on track with what you're saying.

Eric F I think gets into whatever he likes in a big way, I've had friends like him before and that's kind of their thing. That "bromance" video was almost mean in how cheap the shot they took was.

Sure, I get ya. One of the challenges about a competition show where the goals are subjective is in there.

What did you think of Wayne's gator god, not just paint but the sculpting choices?

I think the metric for who is the final person sent home before the finale will be the one who misses under pressure in the concept zone. All their executions have been strong in the clutch. I suspect Eric F is going home for the same reason, he won't be able to hit the needs of the challenge because he'll be aiming too high.

I really have no idea who does those concept sketches, but they seem to update whenever the artist makes a last minute change to their concept. Maybe they hire artists to sketch them out after the show is filmed and is in editing, because sometimes the concept sketch doesn't match what seems to be the artist's style.

I think the "dramatic editing" really makes it hard to see what the make-ups look like sometimes. They keep cutting away and panning the camera, when you really just want to get a good long look at the thing.

I actually liked Wayne's gator god, but most of those Egyptian gods have gigantic animal heads that are completely disproportionate to their bodies and aren't blended in at all. I think his gator would work better in a PG-rated kids film, though, and isn't something that would necessarily read as scary. However, I'm completely surprised that the judges loved it so much. Especially when they complained that the head on his original gator character (from the first episode) had a head that was too big and the head on that character wasn't nearly as gigantic as this recent one. Maybe they knew that it was intentional this time around.

I definitely don't understand why the judges loved that make-up and basically ripped Anthony a new one over his make-up, however.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I really have no idea who does those concept sketches, but they seem to update whenever the artist makes a last minute change to their concept. Maybe they hire artists to sketch them out after the show is filmed and is in editing, because sometimes the concept sketch doesn't match what seems to be the artist's style.

I think the "dramatic editing" really makes it hard to see what the make-ups look like sometimes. They keep cutting away and panning the camera, when you really just want to get a good long look at the thing.

I actually liked Wayne's gator god, but most of those Egyptian gods have gigantic animal heads that are completely disproportionate to their bodies and aren't blended in at all. I think his gator would work better in a PG-rated kids film, though, and isn't something that would necessarily read as scary. However, I'm completely surprised that the judges loved it so much. Especially when they complained that the head on his original gator character (from the first episode) had a head that was too big and the head on that character wasn't nearly as gigantic as this recent one. Maybe they knew that it was intentional this time around.

I definitely don't understand why the judges loved that make-up and basically ripped Anthony a new one over his make-up, however.

Based on the styles, I think they have the competitors update their sketches to get them show-ready. Why pay someone else when you can force people who are competing for it do the work? I wonder why there hasn't been a behind-the-scenes episode of FaceOff yet.

I am surprised to hear you liked the gator god look. To me, the mask had good sculpting but weak paint, and it fit in a very rubbery way. But the body was really where I think it didn't shine, it just looked generic, no thought to the physique of the dessicated character. I actually heard Ve Neil say "oh!" in a glowing way when he said the head was meant to be a different design from the body, like if she needed him to say it then it wasn't tracking to begin with. If ever you find yourself on the show, just say all your big mistakes are choices. (I know his was on purpose, but in my mind it was still a bad execution so it's a mistake.)

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I'll always like the more cartoonish designs and I think that's why Wayne's gator god appealed to me so much.

Anyways, tonight's episode went pretty much how I expected. Eric F. got pushed out of his comfort zone and it cost him. I did think he had a good make-up, though.

Wayne struggled with the paint apps on his make-up and that nearly cost him. His sculpting was amazing as usual, however. I think if Eric F. had gotten to choose first when they were picking their alien species, then Wayne might have been the one going home.

I liked Anthony's character a lot, I probably wouldn't have even bothered to watch the finale if they had torn Anthony's work apart again and booted him off the show.

Kris' make-up was probably the first thing he's done that I've actually liked. I don't know what the deal was with those bright green teeth, though.

That Defiance show looks promising. However, I've decided to cancel my cable after this month, because my two favorite shows (FaceOff and Walking Dead) are wrapping up their seasons this month and it's just not worth the cost to have cable right now. (it was cheaper when I kept up with Walking Dead just by buying the episodes off of iTunes.)

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I'll always like the more cartoonish designs and I think that's why Wayne's gator god appealed to me so much.

Anyways, tonight's episode went pretty much how I expected. Eric F. got pushed out of his comfort zone and it cost him. I did think he had a good make-up, though.

Wayne struggled with the paint apps on his make-up and that nearly cost him. His sculpting was amazing as usual, however. I think if Eric F. had gotten to choose first when they were picking their alien species, then Wayne might have been the one going home.

I liked Anthony's character a lot, I probably wouldn't have even bothered to watch the finale if they had torn Anthony's work apart again and booted him off the show.

Kris' make-up was probably the first thing he's done that I've actually liked. I don't know what the deal was with those bright green teeth, though.

That Defiance show looks promising. However, I've decided to cancel my cable after this month, because my two favorite shows (FaceOff and Walking Dead) are wrapping up their seasons this month and it's just not worth the cost to have cable right now. (it was cheaper when I kept up with Walking Dead just by buying the episodes off of iTunes.)

I had a lot of problems with this episode. The core judges didn't even know the material well enough to pick up that Eric's facial sculpt had accuracy to the character it was using, they had to go to the show's producer for that. How can you complain that the makeup isn't accurately blending something when you don't know the source well enough to judge that?

I also didn't like any of the work presented, although the winning makeup was the only one I felt was TV-ready and of course it was Anthony's. I think part of the problem is the source material didn't look particularly well thought out, it just looked like standard TV alien ideas and not particularly inspiring ones. Another part of it though was that they all went with muscle bodies and baked-in expressions and simple colorschemes that repeated what the others were doing. I just checked the Fearnet recap and sure enough, I still dislike every entry: http://www.fearnet.com/news/review/t...ien-apocalypse

I think Eric really got tossed simply because he chose to sculpt the mechanical bits into the suit and they detracted from rather than added to the character, but that wig he put on as a beard really was over the top and he should have covered that seam with makeup work instead of hair.

Ha, those green teeth sure did stand out. I guess Kris felt the logic of the glowing eyes was some sort of goop, and his mutant bioman spread the goop into the mouth - kind of silly but it was something different and eyecatching, took my eyes off the rubbery overall mess and horrible choices he made on the shoulders (the intent was to make them asymmetrical but instead he just made one trapezius rounded and the other straight, that was so bad).

Face Off is renewed and will have a summer series, but that alone isn't enough to pay so much for cable, we get it here with our HOA fees but when I was paying full price it was insane how expensive it had gotten. Annoyingly, the Siffy website doesn't have all the episodes as full episodes, but they do have 10 minute rewinds.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I liked that lady's comment about Eric possibly being on a no-fly list. I hadn't thought about that when they mentioned the "family obligations." Maybe he's just not allowed in the country of Canada? My brother's not allowed into Canada anymore and he works for the US government.

Anyways, I agree, the make-ups felt a little trite and uninspired; but that was because they were attempting to combine trite and uninspired TV alien designs. Anthony definitely had the best overall design and I'm sure that it would do great as a background alien on the show.

I can follow Walking Dead and Face Off on iTunes for $2 an episode and I'd actually own the episodes to watch as many times as I want. So that totals about $16 a month when both of those shows are running. That's much cheaper than the $76 a month that I'm paying for cable and internet. I think it would cost me $40 a month just for internet, so that would total $56 a month.

Of course, if I was following 5, 6, or 7 different shows, then I think buying cable would be the cheapest option. But I could follow a third series off of iTunes (probably Comic Book Men) and still be saving money. So it seems to be the best option. The only station I would really miss is TCM.

Looking forward to the finale next week and so far no word on if they are going to be allowing the audience to vote for the winner this time. I'm hoping they don't, because I felt that last season just turned into more of a popularity contest and not necessarily a contest of talent and skill. I think Wayne is the underdog of the three finalists, but only because he has come up short multiple times for the exact same reason: time management. I think the finals are always group challenges, so if he gets first pick of a partner, then he needs somebody like Eric F. who can get a massive amount of work done in a short period of time. Either way, I'm rooting for Anthony.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I liked that lady's comment about Eric possibly being on a no-fly list. I hadn't thought about that when they mentioned the "family obligations." Maybe he's just not allowed in the country of Canada? My brother's not allowed into Canada anymore and he works for the US government.

Anyways, I agree, the make-ups felt a little trite and uninspired; but that was because they were attempting to combine trite and uninspired TV alien designs. Anthony definitely had the best overall design and I'm sure that it would do great as a background alien on the show.

I can follow Walking Dead and Face Off on iTunes for $2 an episode and I'd actually own the episodes to watch as many times as I want. So that totals about $16 a month when both of those shows are running. That's much cheaper than the $76 a month that I'm paying for cable and internet. I think it would cost me $40 a month just for internet, so that would total $56 a month.

Of course, if I was following 5, 6, or 7 different shows, then I think buying cable would be the cheapest option. But I could follow a third series off of iTunes (probably Comic Book Men) and still be saving money. So it seems to be the best option. The only station I would really miss is TCM.

Looking forward to the finale next week and so far no word on if they are going to be allowing the audience to vote for the winner this time. I'm hoping they don't, because I felt that last season just turned into more of a popularity contest and not necessarily a contest of talent and skill. I think Wayne is the underdog of the three finalists, but only because he has come up short multiple times for the exact same reason: time management. I think the finals are always group challenges, so if he gets first pick of a partner, then he needs somebody like Eric F. who can get a massive amount of work done in a short period of time. Either way, I'm rooting for Anthony.

$56 vs $76 I guess makes sense if you don't watch any other TV at all, but find out if losing your package deal might increase your internet more than you think, some cable companies tack on extra fees they're legally allowed to include, like "federal subscriber fees" which are just "the federal government lets us gouge you with this arbitrary fee we keep to make up for your neighbors not subscribing to us and we get to make it sound like a tax", which they leave off some packages.

Ha! I can see Eric Fox getting on a no-fly list or banned from Canada. That's weird about your brother though.

I totally agree about not letting the audience pick the winner this time, they really need to win based on their skills alone by qualified judging. I'm not rooting for Anthony, he's so good that I feel like there's no question and there really hasn't been since episode 3.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I'm starting to reconsider dropping my cable. Because I remembered how much extra money I was spending each month on movie rentals or just buying Blu-Rays or XBox games before I had cable. I was buying probably 2-3 Blu-Rays each week and renting 2 movies every 3 days before cable. Now that I have all these channels to choose from, I've only bought 2 Blu-Rays (The Avengers and The Hobbit) and I haven't rented a single movie since September. So, I think keeping cable would balance everything out and be cheaper in the long run. Plus, it's been a great way to keep my creative juices flowing.

Anyways. I really enjoyed the finale tonight and, of course, I'm glad that Anthony won. I thought he did the best work on both characters. Wayne and Kris made really awesome male characters, but their female characters didn't really look as cool. Although I did love the sculpting on the back of Wayne's female character. Anthony's female character looked great, especially considering that he had to completely resculpt her face at the last minute.

I did feel a little bad that Anthony got stuck with Autumn, but she seemed to be a lot more humble this time around. Probably because she wasn't competing for herself this time. It was kind of weird that they didn't bring ALL of the previous contestants back to allow the finalists to choose from everyone; but they probably knew that nobody would want to pick Troy or Michael or Jenna, etc.

I think Wayne might be the first contestant to make it to the finale without actually winning a single challenge the entire season.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I'm starting to reconsider dropping my cable. Because I remembered how much extra money I was spending each month on movie rentals or just buying Blu-Rays or XBox games before I had cable. I was buying probably 2-3 Blu-Rays each week and renting 2 movies every 3 days before cable. Now that I have all these channels to choose from, I've only bought 2 Blu-Rays (The Avengers and The Hobbit) and I haven't rented a single movie since September. So, I think keeping cable would balance everything out and be cheaper in the long run. Plus, it's been a great way to keep my creative juices flowing.

Anyways. I really enjoyed the finale tonight and, of course, I'm glad that Anthony won. I thought he did the best work on both characters. Wayne and Kris made really awesome male characters, but their female characters didn't really look as cool. Although I did love the sculpting on the back of Wayne's female character. Anthony's female character looked great, especially considering that he had to completely resculpt her face at the last minute.

I did feel a little bad that Anthony got stuck with Autumn, but she seemed to be a lot more humble this time around. Probably because she wasn't competing for herself this time. It was kind of weird that they didn't bring ALL of the previous contestants back to allow the finalists to choose from everyone; but they probably knew that nobody would want to pick Troy or Michael or Jenna, etc.

I think Wayne might be the first contestant to make it to the finale without actually winning a single challenge the entire season.

Interesting point about purchases and rentals, that's a big difference obviously. There's a ton of content on cable, FINDING it is the hardest part, I didn't even know I had some of the channels I have because they're not HD and I never explored.

I liked the finale and wasn't surprised that Anthony won, he definitely was the best of the bunch most of the way through even here where he was surrounded by talents that could have taken it on their own had the other 2 not been there. Anthony's characters were excellent, although I did wonder how much of their detail was going to show to a far-away audience, they seemed like smaller, more intimate makeups (oh, and also they were ACTUAL makeups rather than reliant on just appliances), but it obviously translated. I forgot he had to resculpt at the last minute, but yeah, he really knocked that out of the park.

Autumn did seem like a real drag, I thought it odd that Anthony had both her and Eric Z, that should have been a very odd dynamic but it seemed to work out, maybe Anthony's also a good team leader. I think they only brought back the top 9 because the bottom of the barrel contestants would have dragged the work down.

Good point about Wayne not winning anything yet still going all the way, I think having Kris and Anthony and House and Eric & Eric there made Wayne's solid work come in strong second place a lot and the judges recognized that fact.

Totally right about the Kris and Wayne makeups not having good female characters, I really hated Wayne's makeup on the female's face and how baked-in its expression was which was odd because his male had great expressiveness. Both Wayne and Kris' female makeup was also surprisingly roughly-sculpted in the face, that was weird.

Loved Kris' male character, the silver guy might have been a touch rubbery but that sculpt and paint looked amazing and it had a fantastic back sculpt which really showed thought for a 360-degree audience layout, if this hadn't been a duo competition I wouldn't have been surprised to see him win on that piece.

Wayne's male character was another thing where the paint was only half finished and hurt a good sculpt.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Season 5 premiere was tonight: vets vs. rookies. It's cool to see Roy, Laura and Alana back; but I'm actually more surprised that Roy and Laura are even still available to compete again since I would have imagined that they'd be busy working on major motion pictures with the level of talent that they showed in season 3. I guess the special effects industry is much more difficult to break into than I originally thought.

Anyways, I thought it was kind of a weird choice to have two 8-person teams making 5 characters each. Especially since you ended up with 3 people working on one creature, two people on another and a few artists making a complete character on their own. Seems like it would have been easier to just have them work on 4 different fantasy archetypes in teams of two. Either way, I thought most of the veterans did a great job (except for that ogre); but that's really to be expected.

None of the newcomers really stood out for me except possibly Laney. She has a playful, almost childlike, aesthetic that I found really cool. It will be interesting to see what she does next.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis